Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Bernard Cowan: Toronto Mike'd #233

Episode Date: April 27, 2017

Mike chats with Bernard Cowan's son Elliott about his father's esteemed career voicing popular cartoons and Canadian programs and his work as a crusader and founding member of ACTRA.

Rocket Robin Hood is referee for Will and Little John, who have challenged each other to a hunting contest on the Royal Preserve. Then it's quarterstaff against sword. One of you will come back as the best hunter, and then both of you will never say another thing about it. Agreed? Agreed. All right. Well agreed well then hunters take your marks ready set go Welcome to episode 233 of Toronto Mike, a weekly podcast about anything and everything.

Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a local independent brewery producing fresh craft beer. And propertyinthesix.com, Toronto real estate done right. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week, well this week we're going to do something a little bit different. Most people won't know the name Bernard Cowan, but those of a certain age will definitely know his voice. Joining me this week to talk about his father Bernard is Elliot Cowan. Welcome Elliot. Hey Mike, nice to be here. Now, before we play several clips of your dad

and we're going to chat about his esteemed career, right off the top, you also worked in show business, so to speak. You spent many nights at Exhibition Stadium and Skydome working on baseball and football games. That's pretty damn cool yourself. That would be a dream come true for me, I think. Oh, it's a lot of fun. Yes, I've worked in the industry behind the scenes as a technician for over 30 years.

And back in the day, I did a lot of work for CTV. We did a lot of the Blue Jay games, Argo games, golf, tennis, all of it. So, yeah, it was a lot of fun, and especially at Exhibition Stadium. It was quite a different time back there, especially technology-wise. The setup alone would take hours. I'll bet. Spools and spools of cable.

Now, I'm trying to remember this. I remember in the CFTO broadcast, that was Don Chevrier, was he one of the guys? And Tony Kubik, was he doing the CFTO games? That was baseball. Baseball, oh yeah, okay. Fergie Oliver. Fergie Oliver, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I used to, I was the audio assist for those games. So I would be down in the dugout and I would take care of Fergie with his microphone and earphones and intercom for interviews before and after the game. So that was quite great. Well, Fergie's catchphrase was, how about those Blue Jays? Was that him? Intercom for interviews before and after the game. So that was quite great. Well, Fergie's catchphrase was, how about those Blue Jays? Was that him?

I believe so. Yeah, yeah. I believe so. I mean, it was a fun time. It was great to be there. But there were some cold nights where you wish in the fourth inning the game would end. The mistake by the lake, is that what you used to call it? Yeah, and football games as well, and all of the sports.

It was a lot of fun. I remember one time at Exhibition Stadium, I was sitting in the dugout during batting practice. Ball rolled to me, and I thought, this is great, picked up the ball. And George Bell walked over and said, give me that ball. You know what? I looked at him, I said, okay, and I tossed the ball to him and he walked away. And I thought, man. Oh, wow. He was my, I know he was a cantankerous SOB at times, as that story illustrates,

but he was my favorite Blue Jay growing up. He was my guide. He was great. I tend to go for Dave Steeb. The other cantankerous guy. Yeah, I loved his mound presence, and that slider was worth watching all the time. Yeah, unbelievable. I'm thinking of 1983 was the first season I really paid attention to, and I think he started the All-Star. It was either 82 or 83,

but I think it was 83 that he starts the All-Star game. And it was like, yeah, it was just, we had this, our team was just developing into kind of a contender and kind of climbing there,, we had this, our team was just developing into kind of a contender and kind of climbing there, but we had this ace in the starting rotation, and yeah, that slider was deadly. It was deadly, but funny, on a football game,

again, with technology, I was working in the audio department with a parabolic microphone with a mile of cable. Today, they're all wireless, so I'm running down the sideline with this microphone and all this cable, and a wide receiver catches the ball and is running towards the end zone, and I came about two inches from tripping him with the cable. Oh, wow!

And I thought, man, this might be my last game. And then they'd play that clip endlessly. Endlessly, while I was sitting at home looking for work. That's right. You're also involved with Umpires Media. Tell me about, it's called the Baseball Rules Explorer at umpiresmedia.com slash rules. What's that about?

Well, it's a fantastic learning app for all the rules of baseball. What we want to do is become the number one provider of video-based rules and their explanations for every sport. What we have now is a fantastic app that can be used on every platform that delivers all of the rules of Major League Baseball. You you can search a specific rule number, situation, a base, you know, you can go to second base and get rules that pertain to there, to that place. We've also created a quiz with video explanations of all the rules, so you get a visual scenario of a rule, then you get a question, you know, what is the outcome, choices, and then the answer, and then an explanation. And that is a great application for umpires, kids, players, managers, coaches. So you can keep score.

It's a wonderful thing for, like I say, for a team. A manager can sign up, register his entire team, and then they can take the challenge and see how they do, have some fun, maybe win a prize or two if their manager wants to put up one, and learn the game and have fun at the same time. Does it say you have to touch third base before you can go home? Because I've been watching, you know,

that Chris Coughlin dive home. That was something. I've never seen that before, and I've watched a lot of baseball. And I don't really get tired of watching it. Like, I can keep watching it, and it's still kind of thrilling to watch it. But there are people who swear,

and there's certain angles from the other telecasts, the other telecasts that show that Chris might not have touched third base on his way home there. Well, I don't think he did touch, but the play had already happened and it was over, so the appeal was too late. Right, right. But that was something, and it'll be something shown forever. I think that and the bat flip are going to be two clues that we see for quite some time. Well, there's a doubleheader today because they were rained out yesterday, but I was thinking

if the fan base has ever needed something like that, this is what we needed because the record is pretty terrible. Just having the Chris Coughlin dive home and then the big Strowman double and extras shot in the arm, we needed that. That's great. All right, Elliot, if it's okay the arm, like we needed that. So that's great.

All right, Elliot, if it's okay with you, we're going to talk about your father after the break because I think Bernard Cowan, and admittedly, the name was, I was not familiar with the name Bernard Cowan, and then I did some digging, did a lot of listening, and I realized for people of a certain age who remember 60s and 70s Canadian television and more, like you have heard this man's voice everywhere. So we're going to talk about his career and play a whole bunch of clips.

And I think this will be like a solid nostalgic trip. So we'll do that after the break. Just a few things for everybody listening. Patreon.com helps power this podcast. Thanks for everybody listening. Patreon.com helps power this podcast. If people go to Patreon.com slash Toronto Mike and become a patron, give what you can. You can start at a dollar a month.

That would be fantastic. And I'd be your best friend forever. If that link is too hard to remember, go to TorontoMike.com and click the become a patron orange button that you see on the side. The beer in front of you, Elliot, that's going home with you today. Fantastic. And it's a perfect

night, perfect day for it too. It's beautiful out there. There's a lot of midges, by the way. I don't know how often you get to the southern end of Toronto, but at this time of year, we get overwhelmed with swarms of midges. It lasts about a month. And basically, they're kind of like gnats. They're like tiny little flies that

go in clouds. And they're relentless. They're harmless. They don't bite or anything. They're not like mosquitoes. But they're annoying. So if I do a bike ride, like I did a bike ride last night because I was watching my son play the viola in this symphony. And I can't tell you how many of those midges end up in my eyeballs, in my nose, in my mouth. Like, it's unbelievable. So just make sure that you take it north. You know, even if you just get north of Queensway, you're going to be A-OK with that beer. That's my warning to you. Thank you for that. And thank you, Great Lakes Beer. I would say Great Lakes Brewery, but then people have to make fun of me for how I say brewery. But Great Lakes Beer wants you to enjoy those

beverages. And there's a glass there. Yes, that glass right there. That glass is going home with you as well. That's courtesy of propertyinthesix.com. It's a pint glass. Propertyinthesix.com. I urge everyone listening, we have to patronize. We have to basically be good to the sponsors of independent podcasts like this so they keep doing it. So people like me can keep talking about Bernard Cowan and the other Toronto people that have interesting stories to share. So please visit propertyinthesix.com. And if you're considering buying or selling in the city, please contact Brian there. Brian says that the Rental Fairness Act, which amends the Residential Tenancies Act, will mean that small investors will be selling

off their condos. The rental income already doesn't cover their mortgage maintenance and taxes, and it's only going to get worse with this new legislation. So Brian says that by the end of 2017 and in 2018, many new condos are going to hit the market, which will increase the supply significantly. So the very best time to sell is ahead of this expected price correction. That's right now, people. So contact Brian at propertyinthesix.com to learn more. Brian Gerstein is a real estate sales representative with PSR Brokerage and a huge Raptors fan.

Elliot, do you follow the Raptors? I do. Are we going to finish this tonight, or are we going to make us all sweat it out in a Game 7? I think we're doing it tonight. I think they've had enough. You notice a trend with this team that we're dominant in the Game 5, and then we usually kind of stink up the joint a bit in Game 6,

and then we finish in Game 7. I know, but I don't think they want to go to 7. No, let's not risk that. So let's do it tonight. I'm with you. All right. Your dad's career spanned over 40 years, and despite having opportunities in the USA, he chose to work in Toronto. Can we start with that? Because I think a lot of people think you have to go to the States to kind of reach the heights in this type of a career. So maybe we begin, actually, but tell us a bit about your father and what he did and why he chose to stay here. Well, there were probably, I guess I can

say there were three stages of his career, if I'm correct. He started off in radio and he was an announcer. He also then moved into cartoon work in the late 50s, where Arthur Rankin from Rankin-Bath approached him, and they had a meeting, and subsequently, my father became the videocraft representative of Canada, which was Rankin-Bath, and they were producing cartoons, Return to Oz, Pinocchio, I believe were the ones in the early 60s. And the people in Toronto, the actors in Toronto, were all actors in dramas on the CBC radio, etc.

So they were all professional actors. etc. So they were all professional actors, and my father put a group of people together to voice the characters on these cartoons, which brought them to a different level of life, if you will, because of the performers' backgrounds. They really brought these characters to life. So my father put the group together, and then he was the dialogue supervisor director for these cartoons, which started with Return to Oz, Pinocchio, led into Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, etc. Now, I was going to say, when you hear Rankin-Bass, that's the first place I think of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It's still an annual staple. You know, every holiday season, you know, we see Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It's the biggest Christmas television special in history.

It still, ratings-wise, beats anything that is on against it on the night, anywhere. the early 2000s, I believe, that a network in Britain paid a million for just to air the program. Wow. Let's remind, as if you need a reminder, but let's hear a little bit of the beginning of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and then we'll talk about how people can hear your father on this annual traditional special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. So let's

listen into this. If I live to be a hundred, I'll never be able to forget that big snowstorm a couple of years ago. The weather closed in and, well, you might not believe it, but the world almost missed Christmas. Oh, excuse me. Call me Sam. What's the matter? Haven't you ever seen a talking snowman before? Nice around here, isn't it? I call it Christmastown, better known as the North Pole. The Christmas tree forest. Yep, here's where we grow them. Nice place to live, you know. Now I'm in the festive spirit.

Absolutely. So tell me, the voices were done here? All the voices were done here except Burl Ives. Burl Ives was brought in later. Larry D. Mann actually did the voice of the snowman for the entire program, as well as all the songs as well. He recorded all the songs.

But the network felt they wanted to have somebody more known to lead the program, and they brought in Burl Ives. All right. So, yeah, so Burl Ives didn't come to Toronto to do the voice, and they brought in Burl Ives. All right. So, yeah, so Burl Ives didn't come to Toronto to do the voice, but everyone else did it. So even your father, so Bernard,

we can hear Bernard Cowan on this special, right? He did three voices. He did the pink polka-dotted elephant, which is my favorite. He was Clarice's father, which had a couple of lines. And he was also Bumble. So you could imagine, in 1964, Rudolph aired for the first time. I was a little boy. I was five, six years old. Went to school the next day. Everyone was talking about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and they were all talking about Bumble, how scared they were. You know, he was so scary, so scary.

And I remember looking at my classmates and went, ah, he's not so bad. I just had breakfast with him. That's great. Okay, I have a little bit of Bumble here. So Bumble's got a great roar. Let's hear it. Yeah, this clip loops the roar because it was definitely scary. So your father was Bumble, the Abdominal Wolf Snowman. He was, and I remember asking him, how did you do that?

And he said, I was in an echo chamber. And I remember as a kid, oh my God, what did they put him in? When in fact, it was just a button on a board. All right, so that's Rankin Bass. And this led to many more cartoons featuring your father's voice. Absolutely, absolutely. He did many, many, many cartoons. In fact, it was what really started the, I guess in some ways, the cartoon industry in Canada, because they produced a lot of cartoons. With the Rankin-Bass, yes, it was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, King Kong, Tom of T-H-U-M-B. And my father, again, produced all of the dialogue. So he put the team together, negotiated the contracts, etc., etc., and directed the dialogue being recording. He also added his

own voice when needed, and that's another interesting part about him and the time. In today's world, if you did a voice, you got paid. If you did two a voice you got paid if you did two voices you got paid if you did multiple there were you know tears but back then if there was a voice that needed you know hey you or what's that he would just do it so in all of these cartoons all of these sporadic voices lines are him and he didn't even charge for them. He just, he needed it, so he did it. And on several cartoons, he was featured more. Again, for instance, on King Kong, he was Professor Bond. He was also Kong. Again, they also produced Warner Brothers cartoons, which were Spider-Man and Hulk and Thor and Aquaman, etc.

And again, he was various voices throughout all of those cartoons. Let me play the opening theme of Spider-Man, and then I'll drop my fun fact on another Toronto tie-in to that cartoon from the 60s. And then we'll talk about who your father played on the spider-man late 60s tv show so here's the well-known theme that i can't get tired of so Spider-Man, Spider-Man Does whatever a spider can Spins a web any size Catches thieves just like flies

Look out, here comes the Spider-Man Is he strong? Listen, bud He's got radioactive blood Can he swing from a thread? Take a look overhead. Hey there, there goes a Spider-Man. In the chill of night, at the scene of a crime, like a streak of light, he arrives just in time.

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Wealth and fame, he's ignored. Action is his reward to him. Life is a great big hang-up. Wherever there's a hang-up, you'll find the Spider-Man. Elliot, do you know who sang that theme song? No, I don't. It's members of two different groups.

One is the Billy Van Sing van singers and the other is the laurie bauer singers uh two local groups uh that perform that song billy van i know you know who billy van is but a reminder to people like this is the guy from the hilarious house of frightenstein so i had no idea like this is a fact i learned only fairly recently that he was part of this singing band back in the 60s that sang things like that. But Billy Van from the hilarious House of Freidenstein had a vocal group. I didn't know that. There's a big Toronto connection

to that song. Laurie Bower singers and Billy Van singers doing that. So who exactly did your dad, Bernard, play on Spider-Man? Well, originally on that cartoon, I believe he was Peter Parker. And then they changed that and made Paul Soles, who was the voice of Spider-Man, Peter Parker as well. And as a side note, Paul Soles was also the voice of Hermie in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Who wanted to be a dentist. Wanted to be a dentist. Wanted to be a dentist. Wanted to be a dentist. Two iconic voice roles for Paul Soles, who I would imagine everyone knows from Take 30, etc. in Toronto. He's also been in many movies and just won an award for Best Actor in a web series. Cool. That's great.

And you mentioned, so all these, these are, like I know them now as like Marvel properties, but these were Warner Brothers shows, like The Incredible Hulk and Thor and Spider-Man? Well, Spider-Man was, I believe. That, for sure. And as far as voices, again, on all of these cartoons, some of them he had more featured roles,

but he was always a voice or two thrown in in all of these cartoons. But again, he was the one who directed all the dialogue and created all of this great work. Was he, he appeared on Captain America? I would imagine there's a voice or two in there of his as well. Okay, let me play a little bit of this. Now, this is a show, unlike another show, which we played off the very top and we'll talk about in a little bit, that I watched all the time as a young man, even though it was from the 60s.

They syndicated it and played it every day, and I watched it a ton. I did not know about this Captain America cartoon, so I was watching it on YouTube the other day. So let me play a bit, because I think people just a little older than me will have a fun nostalgia trip out of this one. When Captain America throws his mighty shield,

all those who chose to oppose his shield must yield. If he's led to a fight and a duel is due, then the red and the white and the blue will come through when Captain America throws his mighty shield. Miles from shore, an undersea craft of unusual design cruises silently through the water. Aboard are four equally unusual characters. From their observation window, they behold the frozen figure of a man drifting by. Stop the engine. There's someone out there.

I've got him. Now that narrator we heard in that clip right there, that is your father, Bernard Cowan. Absolutely. Wow. And that voice, that narration voice, once you hear it, and like I said, I've spent a lot of time the last couple of days listening to your dad. It's a distinctive voice. You know it from a million places, but you don't have a name to it. Now we know it's, you know, Toronto's own Bernard Cowan. Well, the two other programs that people would know that voice from would be the Front Page Challenge, which was on for 30 plus years. He was the announcer for Front Page Challenge. He was also the voice of Wayne and Schuster comedy specials.

Two massive Canadian programs, but you're just a tiny bit ahead of me. I've got to come through some more cartoons here real quick. We're almost there because that's very important stuff. But there's another show I didn't know existed because it never got syndicated like Rocket Robin Hood, which we'll talk about in a little bit but uh there's a show called sub uh mariner and this was a 60s cartoon that i'm a child of the 80s i we didn't get sub mariner but i watched like i said i watched it on youtube uh let me play a little of that as well if that's cool stronger than a whale he can swim anywhere he can breathe underwater and go flying through the air That's cool. Namor the First, Prince of Atlantis, Emperor of the Deep, Lord of the Seven Seas, returns to his domain in fabled Atlantis to save his throne from warlord Krang, who tried to seize it during his absence. My prince, at last you have returned.

Quickly, Dorma. How stands my kingdom? at last you have returned quickly Dormamm how stands my kingdom alas it is your kingdom no longer for Krang has already seized your throne but all is not lost the people still stand with you they should have re-ran those in the 80s

but that again that clip I just played the narrator if that sounds familiar to you that narrator because we heard him do Captain America and we're going to hear him a bit on Rocket Robin Hood

that's your father, Bernard Cowan. Yes, it is. And it's just amazing that all these years later that we can listen to this and hear him. I mean, he passed away many, many years ago. What year did he pass away? 1990. 1990, okay. So it's just fantastic to be able to hear all of this, see all of this, not only for me,

but I have children who didn't know him, and, you know, there's their granddad. It's great. To me, I'm still kind of, I know it's been years now, I'm still mind-blowing that I can go watch an episode of a show that aired in 1960s called Submariner, that, you know, I can watch this cartoon, you know, sitting on my couch.

I know. It's amazing, right? It is. Before we get to Front Page Challenge and Wayne and Schuster, et cetera, I want to talk about a couple more cartoons. One I discovered, your dad, he was a part of this show called Max, the 200-Year-Old Mouse. Sorry, did I say 200?

2,000. I'm not doing Max justice. Max is 2,000 years old. So what can you tell me about Max, the 2,000-year-old mouse? Can't tell you a lot about the details of it other than it was another in the series that he did over this period of time. It was very productive from 1966 to 1968. All of these were done. I'm going to play a little of Max, the 2,000-year-old mouse. That's very old for a mouse. Let me just say that Max did well for himself. Let's hear him. Here is our frontier room. The powder horns, the old rifles, the danger and adventure of the early American frontier,

and the greatest pioneer of those early days, Daniel Boone. Yep, I remember Daniel. Me and him cleared the old wilderness road together. Ah, them was the days. But now they're gone. Old tick liquor here's rusted, only good for gathering dust. But someday, someday she'll fire again.

Some day he'll fire again. On November 2nd, 1734, Daniel Boone was born in a log cabin in Pennsylvania. Boone's parents owned a small farm, a weaving establishment, and a blacksmith shop, and Daniel helped with the farming. Daniel's father bought additional farmland miles from their home, and there Daniel went to live and work. Here he began to learn the ways of the forest. Uh-oh.

I could listen to the whole thing, but that's your father's voice narrating Max the 2,000-year-old mouse. I've got to find out who did the voice of Max, though. That was pretty good work there. But yeah, so I guess that'd be that show. For people who are watching cartoons in the 60s, they may remember Max, the 2,000-year-old mouse. Now, if we may, before we leave the cartoons here, there's a, like I mentioned, right off the very top,

I mentioned the show Rocket Robin Hood. There were two cartoons that I knew they were older cartoons, but they must have been inexpensive or something for global to air or something, because I watched them every day. One was the Adventures of Hercules or something with Herc. Herc, remember this? I remember Herc. That he did not. No, I can't give your dad credit for that one. But the other one is Rock at Robin Hood. And I learned from the magic of Google that they made 52 episodes over three seasons in the late 60s. Rock at Robin Hood. I must have seen each of these 52 episodes 52 times.

They were on all the time. Yeah. Let's play that memorable theme song and then hear a bit of your father on that show. Come gather around me, space travelers surround me. Hark now to the ballad of rockin' Robin Hood. I may well confound you, astound you, spellbound you With heroes and villains, the bad and the cool Watch now as our rockets raise here from afar

For now with our Robin we live on a star Three, two, one, blast off! And our brothers marching together on a star 3, 2, 1 Blast off! Band of brothers marching together Heads held high in all kinds of weather With fiery blasts a-roaring up

it's rise Beyond the earth beyond the skies At the sign of prophet take your stand With the gallant clear of our band Send a joyous shout to all the land

For Rockin' Rockin' More We come from near and distant star To the sound of the galaxy born To rally round rocket Robin Hood, braver man has never been born So we sally forth against the foe, our band of brothers skyward ho With rocket Robin Hood

With rocket Robin Hood The countdown started, trouble brews But have no fear, we cannot lose With rockets, Robin Hood Soaring through the far reaches of outer planetary space is new Sherwood Forest Asteroid. Fantastic headquarters of that swashbuckling cosmic highwayman of the 30th century, Rocket Robin Hood. Yes, here comes the one and only Rocket Robin Hood,

gliding through galaxies in his search for star-shattering adventure. The interplanetary villains quiver in their space boots when they hear the merry ring of his laughter and feel the blast of his mighty electro-quarterstaff. Rocket Robin Hood, fun-loving astral adventurer in the astonishing years to come. Now that voice right there, that's the narrator of Rocket Robin Hood. That is your father, Bernard.

That it is. The golden voice. The golden voice. He was all over that show. And it's, you know, I remember when you watch it, I don't know if we were, I don't remember being conscious of the fact that I'm watching a show from the late 60s. You know, you don't really think like that.

You know, there's, hey, this cartoon is on. It's the early 80s and you just kind of watch it and you think it's from that time. But yeah, just 52 episodes over three seasons in the late 60s. And your dad, all over that show. All over that one. He's definitely featured in that one. And that clip right off the top. So the open of this show actually had another clip. Real quick, actually, just to hear a bit more of his cadence in that golden voice here. Rocket Robin Hood is referee for Will and Little John, who have challenged each other to a hunting contest on the Royal Preserve. Then it's Porterstaff against Sword. I think Little John won that competition.

No spoilers, though. Now, you mentioned front page challenge. Now, front page challenge, actually, your father, you mentioned, so what years did your father do the... Oh, my goodness. Early 60s, maybe late 50 50s early 60s through till 19 i guess it would be 85 or 6 until uh he could not participate in that show any longer um but yeah for many many many years and enough, he had worked at CBC prior to that and had left and become freelance.

And Front Page Challenge happened, and in those days, when you were the voice of a product, that's who you worked for. For instance, if you did a Ford commercial, you didn't work for Chrysler. You just didn't do it. Today is all different. So Lever Brothers was the sponsor of Front Page Challenge,

and they wanted their voice, and that voice happened to be Bernard Cowan, and that's how he ended up doing Front Page Challenge for all those years. When he talked to you as a father, that golden voice, was it more casual cadence? You know what I mean? More casual, more casual, but he always spoke well. I can imagine. He had a great voice. Was it more casual cadence? You know what I mean? More casual. More casual.

But he always spoke well. I can imagine. He had a great voice. Let's hear some front page challenge. And then maybe you can tell everybody. In fact, maybe first you can tell everybody. The youngsters listening might not know front page challenge. I actually just talked to my mom about front page challenge earlier today.

Such a staple on Canadian television. But it stopped airing in, I think, 1995, I think was the last episode. But maybe set the premise of what Front Page Challenge was. Well, it was a game show where there would be a guest and a panel would try to guess who that guest was, and then they would talk to them. It was pretty straightforward,

but the guests were quite something, and the panel were, you know, icons of Canadian broadcasting with Gordon Sinclair and Pierre Burton and Betty Kennedy. And it was almost kind of like a 20 questions type thing where you would ask, are you something or other? And they could answer yes or no.

That's right. Within a time frame. And then they would say who the person was and they would come and speak. Cool. Let's hear a little bit of your dad announcing Front Page Challenge. And now here's our panel. First, the bull brummel of broadcasting, Gordon Sinclair. Next to Gordon, our own princess charming, Betty Kennedy.

And here's our resident giant killer, Pierre Burton. And here's our resident giant killer, Pierre Burton. In the guest chair tonight, the distinguished authority on just about everything, Lister Sinclair. Now here's our host, moderator, and all-around good fellow, Fred Davis. Thank you. Good evening and welcome to Front Page Challenge. There you go. That show was hugely popular.

They would record, I believe, two shows on Monday. I believe one was live and one was taped. And they would have a huge studio audience. And also, the orchestra was in the studio. The music was live. Wow. The music was live. The orchestra was actually there. And I remember one time when I was young, I went to the taping. I believe it was the first time I had gone, and I was all excited. And Paul Kliegman, who's a voice on many of these cartoons,

was the warm-up for the audience. So they had a warm-up person getting the audience all ready. And I remember I went to where my father was, and he was behind a curtain with a stool and a script stand and a microphone. And he dropped, was it Bo Brummell's, a name the youngsters won't know either. But he's done very good.

And one of the names actually that was on that panel there was Pierre Burden. And your dad was the voice of the Pierre Burden show. Pierre Burden show and the Great Debate. The Pierre Burden show was an interview show that Pierre did and traveled the world. And my father traveled with the show all over the world. And they did some amazing interviews. And I have many memories of driving to the airport to pick them up with my mother. And Wayne and Schuster, speaking of, you know, great Canadian shows from the past, let me play the clip of Wayne and Schuster, then we'll chat about that. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation defiantly presents

Wayne and Schuster! Starring Johnny Wayne and Frank Schuster! With their very good friends Paul Clickman, Don Cullen, Carol Robinson, Tom Harvey, Roy Wordsworth,

Barbara Franklin, Lou Patocha, Rene Cherrier, Bill Kemp, and Joan Caval. And now, here are the boys. Thank you, thank you very much. A feeling welcome to the second Wayne and Schuster Comedy Special of the season. We think we've got a great show for you tonight. Yes, sir. Personally, I think this is one of the funniest shows we've ever done.

Don't you agree, Josh? Absolutely. It's full of laughs. Yes, as a matter of fact, this show by actual count has 437 laughs. We were going to have 500 laughs, but we were cut back by the anti-inflation review board. Well, now we're down to 436 laughs.

Hello? Oh, thank you. That was barrel plumtree. That one didn't count. Hello? But that one did. Well, shall we tell them about the show? Why not?

And remember to stay within the guidelines. Well, tonight we're going to be doing our version of one of those long British family sagas that keep coming out of England. And out of our ears. We're going to be presenting some of your favorite TV commercials. And right now, with the UN very much in the news,

we switch you by satellite to Switzerland. Wayne and Schuster. Wayne and Schuster. Absolutely. A side note on that. Johnny Wayne passed away the day after my father. And we all figured

he did that on purpose because he wanted my father to introduce him. That's right. That is right. And that was your father introducing Wayne and Schuster of that memorable golden voice. And speaking of CBC, I have a quick aside here, which is that just yesterday, a listener had seen a photo of me and Chris Murphy from Sloan,

and I'm wearing an old retro CBC T-shirt. But it's one of those recent ones made to look like the old ones, right? Okay, so mine was probably made five years ago, and I bought it from the CBC store. And he saw that photo, and he wrote me a note, and he said, you know, I have a, it's like a button-up shirt with the old exploding,

he calls it the pineapple, but I think of it as like the exploding pizza. But he said, I've got an old shirt from the old exploding, he calls it the pineapple, but I think of it like the exploding pizza. But he said, I've got an old shirt from the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal that he worked for TV Ontario at the time. And they were there working with CBC on bringing the games. And they all wore these CBC shirts. So he had one in his closet. And he said, he's never going to wear it.

And he thinks I might actually get off on having it, which he was correct with that assumption. So I bike over to his home yesterday to pick up this CBC shirt. I tweeted a picture. So at some point I've got to throw on this 1976 CBC retro CBC shirt. But the real deal, not a fake retro. And that happened yesterday. So I thought while we're on the topic of CBC, I've got to share my little story there. Absolutely.

Front Page Challenge, or Front Page Challenge, Wayne and Schuster was on for many, many years as well. I mean, both those programs, Front Page Challenge and Wayne and Schuster, two programs in Canada on for over 30 years each. Wow, and yours, your father, was the voice of those shows. On both. So he narrates, just to kind of encapsulate this, so his voice, he's narrating numerous television shows,

including these monster Canadian shows. He also voice narrated documentaries and hundreds of commercials, right? Hundreds of commercials, documentaries. I mean, I can tell you that as a teenager skipping school, I would end up someplace and there'd be a radio on somewhere and all of a sudden a commercial would come on. And it would be him and I'd hear his voice and I'd turn around thinking I was caught. That's hilarious.

One tie-in with sports, if you remember back in the 70s on Hockey Night in Canada, the Imperial Oil commercials. Well, he was the voice of Imperial Oil for all those commercials. I was going to say, can you tell us about some memorable ones? But that's a huge one. Yeah, all Hockey Night in Canada, his commercials aired all the time for several years. Wow. Now, I want to talk a little bit about your father as a crusader of sorts. Is this a good time for that? Sure. That's what I was saying before. I mean, there were three parts. I mean, you have the cartoon work and the industry and

all that he did and produced there. He also, again, as a narrator, hundreds of cartoons, commercials, television shows, but he also was a founding member and past president of ACTRA. And that kind of ties into your

earlier question, why didn't he leave? Why did he stay in Canada? That's right. Good callback. Why did Bernard choose to stay in Canada? Because he fought endlessly for Canadian performers and their rights and the opportunities to work here and not have to leave. And so he had strong ties to his family, friends, and the industry. And the other thing about my father was, you know, he would say, how much is enough? You know, I remember I said, do you make a lot of money, dad? You know, are you rich? And all this as a kid. And he'd just say to me, do you have a roof over your head? And

I'd say, yes. He says, do you have food? And I said, yes. Clothes? Yes. He says, so ask me something else. So to him, what do you need? He had what he needed, and he liked where he was, and he wanted to make it better. I mean, again, with his crusading with ACTRA, he drafted the first residual agreement ever in North America. And he said, and this is back in the, I would imagine, early, mid-60s. He said at the time, our time once given is gone. Our talent once recorded remains of value. Now, can you imagine that was said 50 years know, 50 years ago, and how true is that still today? Incredible. So he chose to stay because although he had opportunities

in the United States to go, he wanted to stay here. He had, you know, he had a great career. He was doing lots of work, as we've just talked about. There was no need for him to leave. And coincidentally enough, when you talk about Wayne and Schuster, talk about people who had an opportunity to leave, they were literally, I mean, first of all, they were on the Ed Sullivan show more than any other performers, period.

That says something. And in that, I'm not sure if it was CBS or NBC, but one of the networks went to Wayne and Schuster with a check and said, fill it out. Wow. Whatever you want. And they chose to stay here because they had the freedom to do exactly what they wanted,

when they wanted, and obviously they were paid well. I just love to hear the stories of those who could go anywhere and be anywhere, be it L.A. or New York or wherever others perceive to be the top of the mountain or whatnot, but they choose to stay in this country, this fantastic country. And I just love hearing those stories. Well, I'm very proud of that fact. And, you know, and he was hugely successful. And in that, when I talk about ACTRA and the things that he did, in his career, he also received the John Draney Award, which to some might be equivalent to what the Cecil B. DeMille Award is in the United States for contributions to broadcasting. In 1986, he was presented with the John Draney Award, a huge honour. And he, ACTRA, for the work that he had done in ACTRA, they created the Bernard

Cowan Medallion, which is presented to those within the union who do outstanding things for ACTRA. So it's quite wonderful. And you're right about the three parts to his career, because it's, you know, you get this great cartoon part, which includes Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Rockin' Robin Hood and all that. And then you have the whole voiceover. He's doing ads, documentaries, Wayne and Schuster, the Pierre Burden Show, Front Page Challenge, all this. And then a crusader. I was just reading the other day, because Joni from Happy Days, Aaron Moran, passed away. And I was reading this article about how the residuals, like they didn't have this

in their contracts, this residuals, and they had to go to court because their likenesses were showing up on slot machines and casinos and things. That's a whole other discussion.

But no, residuals is a topic that gets very heated because yes, none of the cartoons that we've spoken of, none of them have garnered any residuals. They made no money after the fact on any of it. Rudolph Burl Ives does because he had a smart lawyer. And he arranged a residual deal.

So Burl Ives has been paid every year since 1964. Well, I'm glad this came up then. But I must say, the actors on, for instance, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, again, I said earlier, my father put the team together and negotiated the contracts. And they were excellent deals. They were paid extremely well. I believe they had a buyout that might have encompassed two or three earrings or something like that.

It was a very good deal for the three days' work that they all did. But in retrospect, the millions of dollars that have been made on this program through merchandising alone. In fact, I found out recently, I had always wondered with the toys and the merchandising alone. In fact, I found out recently, I had always wondered with the toys and the merchandising. There's Bumble. You can buy a toy, press it. There's the Roar.

Hermie, I want to be a dentist there. And I always thought, here are their voices. No money. And I found out a couple of years ago that they, for the toys, they hired all different actors oh sound alikes sound alikes and why would they do that when they already had them money wow so is it still the case like if something is made today for example is like now all this crusade work with no that's

all this has all been cleaned up that's all relatively cleaned up no people make residuals now what what the rates are, I'm not familiar with per se, but no, people make a fortune on residuals. I mean, we can talk about other programs, whether it's Seinfeld or Friends or any of them, that money's all there. But back in the day, there was none. But again, in 1964, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer is produced videotape what's that right you know when's it gonna air again somebody's gonna buy this how so none of those things were in place but again it's quite unfortunate i mean some people write about how the actors are bitter and they're mad and they, you know, they want nothing to do with the programs. And that's, that's not true. They would like a cut. Absolutely. Even today, we all would,

but they're all proud of what they, what they did and the programs that they worked on. And I mean, you mentioned you have kids, but it must be amazing to know like that, you know, your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will hear your father's voice on a program like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which will play every holiday season forever. Oh, I'm so proud. I'm so proud. And I love it. I mean, how could I not? I think it's great. I mean, all my life, I've always had a reference to things that people love. And I have a connection to it in the sense that my father was part of it. And now I want to introduce my, I have two young children, and I need to introduce them to Rocket Robin Hood. I realize I have failed them. I haven't introduced him to that. So your father

will be all over that. Elliot, is there anything you want to say in conclusion regarding your father, Bernard? By the way, I've been saying Bernard, and you're saying Bernard. I guess it's just our English. Bernard, Bernard. He was also known in the industry as Bunny. Bunny, I could say. People referred to him always as Bunny Cowan.

If you read things, it's Bunny Cowan. No, I'm just extremely proud. I also have an archive collection of audio tape and master tapes that encompass a lot of what we've spoken of today. anything with it. The rights holders I try to deal with and try to do something, especially with the Rudolph. I have things of Rudolph that have never been heard. I mentioned earlier, Larry Mann was the snowman. I have all the audio of him as the snowman for that program. But DreamWorks Animation, who has a tie to it, we couldn't come up with a deal for its release. So you're essentially, for example, on this particular show,

you would be unable to have me play that clip right now. Like you wouldn't be, just illegally, would you have the right to play that? No, no, it's not so much of playing the clip. It's so much of wanting to put a product out with all this unheard material. I can't do that for profit. I could release everything for everybody to hear and see.

Oh, for free. I got you. For free. I mean, that's what, in essence, all of these companies have wanted me to do. We talked about Spider-Man. Spider-Man did, Warner Brothers put a box set together, remastered version of all of the program, 67 cartoons.

And they were going to do a documentary on the making of, and they called me and asked me to participate, to which I said, of course. Long story short, they weren't paying anybody to participate in the documentary, and I asked, why aren't you paying? And their thought was, wouldn't these people's grandchildren

like to see them on TV again? To my reply was, why? When they just had lunch with them. That's a good point. The point is, the documentary was never done because, again, they didn't want to pay the participants to talk about the making of. So it's a delicate issue, and it's very frustrating.

But having said that, what you just said before, It's a delicate issue, and it's very frustrating. But having said that, what you just said before, I'm just so proud to be able to, like you said, I could spend hours on YouTube listening to my father's voice. And I did just that this week. And I'm going to introduce my kids to Rocket Robin Hood. There's that one scene where Friar Tuck, he takes one bite of the food and he throws the rest away.

How in this day and age, that is so wasteful. I don't know. I'll just end it on one unrelated cartoon story, but about my father. My father had a film business very briefly that they were going to dabble into film industry. However, he called me one day and said, guess who was just in my office? Of course, I'm thinking in my head, just? And he said, George Harrison. There you go. And I said, why are you calling me now? That's amazing. You had a Beatle. That is fantastic.

Oh, Beatle. He had 10 tickets to the Beatle concert. This Maple Leaf Gardens? Absolutely. 10 seats. And you know what he said to me? You're too young. Oh, no. How old were you? Five. Oh, yeah. And he said, next time. There wasn't a next time. So when Paul McCartney came, I said, Dad, pay the ticket. He says, it's not the Beatles. Harrison came, not the Beatles. Landon, so.

My sweet Lord. Exactly. And that brings us to the end of our 233rd show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. And Elliot is at Elliot Cowan 1. That's numerical one. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer

and propertyinthesix.com is at Brian Gerstein. See you all next week. It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears And I don't know what the future can hold or do for me and you But I'm a much better man for having known you Oh, you know that's true because Everything is coming up rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow won't stay today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away.

Because everything is rosy and gray.